I Wish You Were The One That Got Away: I Never Meant For This
by GirlWithTheNotebook
Summary: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR 4x12/SUMMER FINALE! Um yeah. Fic spam about the summer finale, I needed to vent. Ezria. My take on what happens immediately after the major cliffhanger in 4x12. What happens when Aria and the girls realise that someone they trusted is actually the person who wants to hurt them the most?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: WARNING! IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE SUMMER FINALE (4X12 – NOW YOU SEE ME NOW YOU DON'T) THEN READ NO FURTHER! THERE WILL BE MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THAT EPISODE!**

**OKAY, HERE'S YOUR WARNING**

**1…**

**2…**

**3…**

**We good?**

**Okay so safe to say I was REALLY FUCKING FREAKED OUT by yesterday's episode. I AM REALLY PISSED OFF THAT EZRA HAS BEEN 'REVEALED' AS A. AND I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND IT. But that's me, and my poor shipper heart. It was all excited cause THEY KISSED! (Although slightly disappointed at the lack of a big, romantic reunion, I kinda feel like they rushed the reunion for the sake of the 'shock reveal'). But I am really depressed about yesterday's episode, and I actually cried. (Yes, I'm that pathetic). **

**So this is just a little thing to get the episode out of my system, I may have hated the episode but for some reason my brain kept yelling at me 'THESE WOULD BE GOOD EZRIA!BETRAYAL FICS'. God. **

**Enjoy, and leave me a review – what were your thoughts on the 'bombshells' in the finale!?**

* * *

Waiting for the others to finish getting their costumes on, Aria stared at her reflection in the full length mirror. She had picked out a dusky pink dress complete with a floral corset. The said corset was making breathing a little more effort than she would have liked. Aria cocked her head to side as she contemplated what to do with her hair.

She couldn't stop running over in her head what Grunwald had told them. What she had revealed about Ali being… alive. Aria could hardly dare to hope that their friend hadn't been lost that night; that Mrs DiLaurentis hadn't lost her daughter, Jason hadn't lost his sister.

But she still found it hard to believe that they were blindly trusting the word of a woman who had claimed to have a 'feeling'. As far as she was concerned, and as much as she wanted Ali to be alive, Aria just felt that it just raised more and more questions. And that it left the wide open for A to swoop in and attack them whilst they were vulnerable.

Aria snapped out of her thoughts as she heard Emily step up behind her.

'You look great Em.'

She smiled, it was true: the dark blue suited her friend. Emily came to stand behind her.

'Listen Ar, I know you think we're making a mistake trusting Grunwald…'

Aria help up her hand.

'It's okay Em, I think… that we need to be cautious. Grunwald could be telling the truth I guess, but that doesn't mean that we should blindly trust her.'

'Agreed.'

Spencer's voice sounded from behind the pair, her and Hanna came into sight.

'I really think that it's important we stick together on this.'

'Like we always have.'

Hanna reached for Aria's hand. She squeezed hers back reassuringly, smiling at Spencer.

'Together.'

The touching moment was interrupted by Emily shrieking:

'Guys! I think someone is in the lair!'

'WHAT!?'

Spencer ran forward to the window, followed closely by the others. Hanna spoke next,

'She's right I can see someone moving about.'

Suddenly the upper level of the building they had discovered A's lair to be in was plunged into darkness. The mysterious figure they saw through the window disappeared from view. Hanna moved to run out, but Spencer grabbed her arm:

'Stop, maybe we can get a look at whoever it is?'

Emily spoke up next.

'From what I could see it looked like a guy, what if it's board-shorts? Grunwald did say that he was here.'

But none of them could expect what happened next.

Emily was proved to be right, the figure that emerged was in fact male – but that was not what shocked the liars. Emily was the first to speak up, as the surreptitious figure lifted his head. His face now being visible from under the dark baseball cap that he wore.

'Is… is that…?'

'Oh, my, GOD.'

'Aria…'

Spencer turned to her friend only to see her already rushing out of the door.

* * *

Aria felt her heart crashing out of her chest, there had to be some kind of rational explanation for this. Why would he be there? He couldn't do this to her. Everything would have been a lie, and that couldn't possibly be right.

Aria could feel tears threatening to spill from her eyes, as she flung the doors of the costume store open. Striding forward to the side of the road, Aria felt breathless from running and the restricting corset. Her hazel eyes met his electric blue ones. Those eyes that used to look at her with nothing but love and care, and now they seemed cold as ice. There was no trace of the man she knew.

He turned his head slightly behind him, realising he had been caught. Aria could feel the tears beginning to fall down her face. She just wanted to run into his arms, for him to tell her that everything was okay, to explain everything, to kiss the hurt away.

As she took a tentative step forward, he took off, running down the sidewalk, weaving in and out of the gathering crowd.

'No… NO! EZRA!'

Without thinking, without listening to the protests of her friends, Aria took off running after him. She could feel the tears now cascading down her cheeks, her breath coming short as she desperately tried to go after him. She saw Ezra dart into an alley, she was quick to follow.

However when Aria ran into it she could see no sign of him. There were no bins to hide behind, no doors to go into. Breathing heavily, her tears escalating into sobs Aria spun around in a circle to try and find him – but he had disappeared.

'EZRA!'

She couldn't accept it, she just… how could he do this? How could _her _Ezra do this? The man that loved old black and white movies, the man that wrote her a poem, the man that adored his son and was so heartbroken at the prospect of losing him – how could he be A? Did this mean that he was board-shorts? Ali's secret older guy? The thought of the love of her life with her best friend sickened Aria to the stomach. Desperately, she called his name out once more.

'EZRA! EZRA **PLEASE**! PLEASE… JUST… TELL ME THIS ISN'T TRUE, _**PLEASE, EZRA!**_'

Aria could take no more it felt as if her chest would collapse, her heart ached with sorrow, and she felt as if her legs could no longer hold her up. Before she could collapse to the ground she felt three pairs of arms catch her.

_Thank god. _

Aria knew she could always count on her friends to be there for her.

'Shhh… It's gonna be okay Aria.'

Spencer, neurotic-genius-girl Spencer, always there: the other half of Team Sparia. But not even Spencer's soothing could quench her cries.

'Ar, we don't even know if he's… Look there could be a hundred other explanations.'

'Then why would he run Em?! Why would he have the balls to stay and explain it to me?'

Emily's own eyes were filling with tears at this sight of her friend's anguish.

'You guys he is A. He's the one that has been making our lives hell for god knows how long. He probably only talked to me that day in the bar to get close to all of us. He's been using me all this time! And… and, he is exactly who we think he is Em. He's board-shorts. He's the older guy that Ali was seeing. He… he lied to me. He used me. And he's been trying to hurt us… hurt me… hurt our families.'

By the end of her rant, Aria had risen to her feet. She could tell her hair was in a disarray and there was make-up smeared on her face. But she didn't care, because her heart was broken. Shattered. Destroyed.

Nonetheless, she's be damned if she let anything happen to her friends. And if they missed the chance to find Ali and put an end to this messed up game once and for all.

'Come on then. Let's go hunt a ghost.'

And with that Aria Montgomery strode out of the small, dingy alley followed by her best friends.

* * *

From the top of the fire escape that Ezra had managed to climb up onto, he saw Aria break down. He saw her friends wrap their arms around her and try to comfort her. It took every ounce of his self-restraint to stop himself from running down there to take her in his arms.

And as he listened to her words he, felt tears of his own slip down his cheeks. He had never wanted her to get hurt in all of this. She was wrong, he didn't use her. He was so in love with her and that was the problem.

Sighing he pulled the cap over his head and did what he did best: disappear without a trace.

* * *

**A/N: Um yeah. **

**So apparently I'm kind of masochistic and enjoy torturing myself. But anyway, I hope you all enjoyed that, like I said it was sort of therapeutic technique for me. That said I know this is like beyond crap and there are probably a million things wrong with it but… whatevs. **

**These are some of the songs I was listening to whilst writing:**

**The One Who Got Away – The Civil Wars (this is actually song from the Ravenswood trailer and it is pretty damn awesome!)  
Counting Stars – OneRepublic  
This Isn't Control – MS MR  
Bones – MS MR  
Lights – Ellie Goulding  
Bleeding Love – Leona Lewis  
Loving You – Matt Cardle & Melanie C**

**Leave a review, I kinda need people to freak out with!**

**- Min**


	2. IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE! PLEASE READ!

**Soul (Guest): Honey I want it to be one too! Same, I really am having a hard time believing this… But Ian (Harding, who plays Ezra) and Oliver Goldstick (one of the producers) gave interviews following the episode and they pretty much confirmed that Ezra IS A and the girls (especially Aria) are in danger :'( /3 xo**

**Guest: That's a solid theory, I think we should keep in mind that even if Ezra is A/on the A team, he might not have been involved from the start and maybe he has (like to said) been blackmailed to join the A team, but we just don't know… D: xo**

**Andrea (Guest): Same! That was exactly my reaction! This is what I'm saying! But those intervews state that he is A, and not Toby 0.2 or whatever. And yeah! What the hell is going on with Wren!? I am so confused… Thanks for the review! **** xo**

**guest (Guest): Yeah the clues were there I guess… Yeah but I don't like the idea of Aria just turning on her friends like that… That story was a oneshot, but I'm thinking of extending it slightly and continuing it on as a series of oneshots. Thanks for the review! xo**

* * *

**WOW you guys I did not expect that sort of response! Thank you very much for all you reviews and theories and general freaking out! It's nice to know I'm not alone in feeling just BLEUGH about this whole thing :P**

**So in terms of this story, when I was writing it I was intending it to be a oneshot because quite frankly I have a LOT of unfinished stories (for other fandoms) that need finishing off, BUT! (Aha there is a but!) I enjoyed (not sure if that's the right word) writing that oneshot a lot and I still have quite a few ides about Ezria!Betrayal fics and Aria finding out that Ezra is A. **

**I have a lot of different ideas, and different roads I wanna take. So I'm going to be starting a series of oneshots about Ezra being A and Aria finding out. There will be LOTS of Spencer, Hanna and Emily as well (and Toby and Mike cause they're my babies) because if you couldn't tell – I'm kinda big on the girls' friendship. **

**I will be uploading it separately to this fic (not sure of a title yet), and the first installement will be an extended version of 'I Wish You Were The One Who Got Away'.**

**So yeah! Once again thanks for all the support, keep your eyes peeled for the new stories and yeah here's to hanging in there until October! **

**-Min xo**


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: Here's the extension of 'I Wish You The One That Got Away' I split it into two parts, partly because dramatic tension! And I'm kinda lazy… don't forget to review!**

* * *

With a sigh Aria let herself into the house. She had insisted that the girls let her go home. None of them had wanted to leave her on her own after what had happened in Ravenswood. But Aria knew it would be difficult to explain to her dad the impromptu sleepover, especially after being gone for most of the day and night. Speaking of her father he greeted her as she stepped inside.

'Hey honey.'

'Oh dad… hey.'

'Are you okay Aria?'

'Yup… I'm great.'

Byron stood up from his desk and walked across to his daughter.

'Really? You look upset? Where were you?'

Aria had to force herself not to look into her dad's eyes, she knew if she did everything would come spilling out. But she couldn't allow herself to do that. She just shrugged and kept her eyes on the floor.

'Nowhere, the girls and I just went on an impromptu trip to Philly. We were celebrating the charges being dropped against Hanna's mom.'

'Okay, well I-'

'You know dad, I'm actually really tired so I'm going to head to bed if that's okay?'

Aria looked up, her eyes not quite meeting the concerned ones of her father.

'Well, alright then.'

Aria let out a silent sigh of relief. Quickly, she made for the stairs. But winced when she heard her father call her name.

'Yeah dad?'

'What's with the costume?'

_Crap._

Aria looked down, realising that she was still wearing the pink dress from the costume shop.

'Oh… um there was a costume party and a friend of Spencer's mom lent us the costumes.'

'Oh well, you look beautiful honey.'

Aria smiled, more grateful than ever for her father – even if she couldn't tell him what was going on in her life.

'Thanks dad, love you.'

'Love you too.'

* * *

Aria walked into her room and shut the door, pressing her forehead to it, exhaling heavily. It had taken every ounce of will she possessed not to crumble there and then. To fall into her father's arms and tell him everything.

'He's right you know. You do look beautiful.'

Aria whipped around, a scream rising in her throat. Before she could let it loose, _he _stepped forward and clamped a hand across her mouth.

'Shh…Shh…It's just me – don't scream.'

* * *

Byron smiled once more at his daughter and watched as she trudged up the stairs. He couldn't dismiss the feeling that something was really wrong. Sighing, he sat back in his office chair. Byron wished he could talk to Ella about this. Their marriage may have been in pieces, but she was still one of his closest friends.

Byron didn't miss the way Aria's arms were crossed against her chest, how her shoulders were slumped and how for that one brief moment where he managed to catch her eyes, they were filled with absolute dejection.

He kneaded his forehead in frustration. He didn't know what to do. Gone were the days where he could protect his baby girl from anything, gone were the times when a kiss was all she needed to feel better and for the pain to disappear. He prayed that he could figure out what was wrong and how to help Aria. Before it was too late.

**A/N: OOOH WHO IS ARIA'S MYSTERY VISITOR? (You guys can probably guess tbh...) and IS BYRON GETTING CLOSER TO THE TRUTH?! **

**DUN DUN DAHHHHH!**

**Yeah this is a little Papa Montgomery heavy but what can I say... either Aria or I have unresolved daddy issues (at this point I'm inclined to say both of us...) And plus I'm a sucker for their relationship, even if Byron was a dick to Ezra... Who is also kind of a dick atm...**

**GAH I HATE EVERYTHING. **

**So yeah, there will be one more instalment to 'I Wish You The One That Got Away' and then I will upload the complete version as the first instalment of my series of oneshots about Ezra being A. And you will find out the title…later! Because I haven't actually thought of one yet!**

**I know I know. **

**I'm terrible.**

**-Min xo**


	4. Chapter 3

**Guest: I WROTE, LOOK!**

**Guest 2: Thank you so much!xo**

**Guest 3: Here it is, hope you like it!xo**

* * *

**A/N: Okay here is the third and final instalment of 'I Wish You Were The One That Got Away'! Thank you so much for all your kind words and support. I hope you enjoy it! And don't forget to review!**

**Oh I forgot to do this earlier:**

**I OWN NOTHING. PLL DOESN'T EVEN REMOTLEY BELONG TO ME. I AM JUST SOME CHICK WITH A LOT OF EMOTIONS ATTATCHED TO IT.**

* * *

'Okay if I let you go are you going to scream?'

There was a moment of silence, Aria shivered as his breath whispered in her ear. She was torn between wanting to break down and cry and kicking the _living __**crap **_out of him. Growling in frustration, she shook her head.

'Okay… I'm going to let you go now. Please don't scream.'

True to his word, he backed away and sat down on the bed. And then shot back up again to stand after Aria shot him a glare so fierce, it could have melted ice.

'What the _actual __**hell **_are you doing here Ezra? What did you come to gloat? To revel in my stupidity? And how the freaking **hell **did you even get into my house?! Oh wait I forgot, you're A, _you probably have your own set of keys!'_

Aria have stridden across the room, and was poking Ezra in the chest. He looked down and saw a 5ft 1 mass of pure fury. Gulping, Ezra placed his hands on the side of arms in an effort to calm her down and was rewarded for his efforts with her punching him straight across the face.

'OW! What the **hell **was thatAr?!'

In an effort not to alert Byron to his presence, they were both angrily whispering. If the situation had been in any other context it would have almost been funny. The thought struck Aria suddenly and immediately. She practically flew back to the opposite side of the room and stared him down. He was still wearing the clothes from Ravenswood. A black jacket and black baseball hat. It hurt just looking at him. Aria turned her face away and looked at her desk.

'Get out. Now.'

'Aria-'

'What?! What could you possibly have left to say?'

Ezra took a deep breath, clenching and unclenching his fists.

'Look, would you just let me explain-'

'_Explain?!'_

Her voice became incredulous in tone.

'_**Explain?! **_Ezra, if you wanted to explain you could have just stayed where you were in Ravenswood. You could have let me come and talk to you, without taking off like that!'

There was an utter silence. They were both wide-eyed and breathing heavily. Aria suddenly became aware of the danger she could be in. If he was who they thought it was, this was someone that had been torturing them for god knows how long. This was someone who had gone out of their way to make her life, and her friends, a living nightmare. This was potentially the person who had tried to kill one of her best friends.

Ezra spoke, fracturing the heavy silence that had settled over the room.

'I couldn't have. Aria, it wasn't safe. I couldn't be sure that he wasn't watching.'

Aria shook her head trying to fight the traitorous tears threatening to fall.

'What are you trying to say? And **who in the name of all things holy** is _he_?'

The look on Ezra's face was terrifying. The anger taking over his features was unlike anything Aria had ever seen.

'_He, _is the person you are confusing me with.'

'_Excuse me?!'_

'He's, what did you call him? Board-shorts. The guy Ali was seeing that summer.'

'So where do you come into this exactly? Do you actually expect me to believe that you were an innocent bystander in all of this? No, no, don't tell me! You're actually trying to protect me from the bad guys, right? If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.'

She gave a mirthless laugh, crossing her arms whilst chewing on her lip. Ezra regarded her for a moment, as if deciding what to tell her.

'No. I'm not exactly innocent. But I am trying to protect you Aria and I need you to believe that.'

Ezra thought he saw her expression soften for a moment. When she spoke her voice was much more tired and resigned.

'No Ezra, honestly I can't believe that. No matter how much I want to.'

His tone suddenly grew harsh.

'Fine. Believe what you want. But believe me when I say this. You and your little friends need to buckle up and hold on tight, because he is coming for you. And unlike Mona, unlike CeCe – he doesn't give a damn what happens to you. As far as he is concerned you are just stepping stones until he can get to Alison. If you think what's happened to you so far is bad then _honestly _you have no idea what's about to happen. You woke the sleeping dragon tonight. And guess what Ar? He's _really _pissed.'

And with that he strode to her window, flung it open and before she could say anything he jumped out. Heart in her mouth she ran to look down and saw him dusting himself off. He pulled the hat tighter over his head and ran off into the night.

Aria didn't stop the tears as they ran down her face. She pulled and yanked until the stupid dress came off and dressed in her oldest most comfy sweats. She crawled into bed and pressed her face to the pillow in order to muffle her cries.

* * *

Just as she was about to drift off to sleep Aria heard the doorbell ring and the murmur of voices. Panicking, she sat up – what if it was Ezra (which made completely zero sense but hey tonight had been kind of crazy).

Before she could jump out of bed she heard several pairs of footsteps nearing her room. There was a knock at her door. She sighed in relief at her father's voice.

'Aria honey? Spencer, Hanna and Emily are here.'

'Um, yeah come in.'

The door opened and revealed her friends, her wonderful, gorgeous, _amazing, _friends. She could see takeout bags, rag mags and ice cream. She smiled and asked her dad,

'Is it okay if they stay over?'

Byron watched her thoughtfully for a moment.

'Sure, but ah can I talk with you in the morning?'

'Sure dad.'

'Okay well, not too late girls.'

He was met the familiar chorus of:

'Sure Mr. Montgomery.'

Smiling once more, he kissed his daughter on the forehead and left the room, shutting the door behind him.

* * *

Once he left, Spencer immediately took charge, in true Hasting fashion.

'Okay, so we have vegan takeout, rag mags, Ben & Jerry's and _The Avengers.'_

Aria looked questioningly at her friends.

'Wait? _The Avengers? _I thought our default was sappy romance?'

Emily squeezed her shoulder as she answered.

'Yeah, but we thought you required something with like zero romantic subplot and many things blowing up.'

'And plus Chris Evans _and _Chris Hemsworth – yes please!'

Aria giggled at Hanna's wink, but her smile faded.

'Hey how are you? I mean about Caleb staying in Ravenswood.'

Hanna shrugged.

'I'm fine, no don't you roll your eyes at me! Honestly, I knew it was important that he stayed. And yeah, I'm gonna miss him but it's like he's moving to Iceland or anything.'

Aria nodded and smiled.

'Thank you guys, so much – I mean for just being here. I love you guys.'

'AND WE LOVE YOU TOO POOKIE BEAR!'

'Okay I take that back. I hate you all.'

The girls' laughter resounded into the night.

* * *

**A/N: Um yeah. Sorry if y'all wanted a happy ending.**

**I know it was very ambiguous here in terms of Ezra's motivations and exactly how 'guilty' he is and who Board-Shorts actually is. But… because I feel like there are literally a million different possibilities that this story line could go down, I wanted to focus on Aria and her emotions on dealing with the situation. **

**Sorry if I disappointed you. And again pretty heaving on the father-daughter relationship as well as the girls' friendship, I'm a pretty strong believer in those relationships and I love writing them!**

**Also I apologise for the countless mistakes I'm sure this is riddled with. It's unbetad and I'm **_**really **_**lazy when it comes to proof-reading…**

**So yeah, hope you enjoyed that! (P.S, I LOVED writing the scene where Aria completely loses her shit with Ezra, I can just picture it really clearly in my mind :P)**

**Leave me a review, **

**AND KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED FOR: '****Breaking Your Heart Was Never My Intention.' **

**This will be the series of oneshots about Ezra being A and the girls finding out and all that jazz. And the complete versions of 'I Wish You Were The One That Got Away' will be the first in the series!**

**So let me know what kind of scenarios you would like to see play out – I'm not promising anything (I'm kind of known for being a terrible procrastinator who never finishes anything) but hopefully I can give you something you would like to see.**

**So as always thank you lovelies for all the support and guess what!? Only 55 days until 'Grave New World'! :D**

**-Min xo**


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